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1: Protein J. 2004 Feb;23(2):103-18.Links
Comment in:
Protein J. 2004 Aug;23(6):357; author reply 359-60.

The natural antibody repertoire of sharks and humans recognizes the potential universe of antigens.

Adelman MK, Schluter SF, Marchalonis JJ.

Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.

In ancestral sharks, a rapid emergence in the evolution of the immune system occurred, giving jawed-vertebrates the necessary components for the combinatorial immune response (CIR). To compare the natural antibody (NAb) repertoires of the most divergent vertebrates with the capacity to produce antibodies, we isolated NAbs to the same set of antigens by affinity chromatography from two species of Carcharhine sharks and from human polyclonal IgG and IgM antibody preparations. The activities of the affinity-purified anti-T-cell receptor (anti-TCR) NAbs were compared with those of monoclonal anti-TCR NAbs that were generated from a systemic lupus erythematosus patient. We report that sharks and humans, representing the evolutionary extremes of vertebrate species sharing the CIR, have NAbs to human TCRs, Igs, the human senescent cell antigen, and to numerous retroviral antigens, indicating that essential features of the combinatorial repertoire and the capacity to recognize the potential universe of antigens is shared among all jawed-vertebrates.

PMID: 15106876 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]